


Trash and Treasure

by Jinmukang



Series: Batfam Week 2020 [2]
Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dark, Angst, Batfam Week 2020, Batfamily (DCU), Court of Owls, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-09
Updated: 2020-03-09
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:47:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23077282
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jinmukang/pseuds/Jinmukang
Summary: It’s a shame, she thinks, that the thing he wanted most was what turned her world evil.-o-o-o-o-Day 2 of Batfam week 2020
Relationships: Barbara Gordon & Jason Todd, Tim Drake & Barbara Gordon, Tim Drake & Jason Todd
Series: Batfam Week 2020 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1658566
Comments: 4
Kudos: 98
Collections: Tales from the Cave





	Trash and Treasure

**Author's Note:**

> This plot bunny has actually been nagging me for quite a long time. I'm glad I've finally found an excuse to explore it. Might expand on this someday. I just really want to explore what would happen if Bruce actually killed the Joker.

“Look,” the man says slowly as he jerks his arms, testing the binds that Oracle had put on him to keep him connected to the underground garage support beam, “this is going to sound crazy, but I’m from a different dimension.”

“I know,” she says, because after she knocked this idiot unconscious she ran some tests. All evidence points to him being Jason Todd, which is impossible because Jason died a long time ago. She sent Tim out to carefully study the entry point of their universe. Hopefully he doesn’t run into the Talon in the process. Or worse, the _Bat_.

“Then why do you have me handcuffed to the wall,” the man growls and Barbara shrugs.

“Maybe because despite you being Jason from another dimension, you call yourself Red Hood—which is the first known alias of the Joker. Then, you clearly have the bat symbol on your chest, so by default I don’t trust you. Lastly, you attacked Tim.”

“First of all, I only attacked the squirt because I was disorientated after my _unwilling_ —mind you—universe hop. And why in the world would the bat-symbol make me untrustworthy? Aren’t you a bat too?”

Barbara clenches her fists and takes a deep breath, images of happily jumping and running over the streets of Gotham besides Robin flashes behind her eyes.

But the images of her father’s casket also flashes behind her eyes. Images of the batarang that did the deed placed in a ziplock bag.

She stalks towards him and crouches, places a hand on his shoulder and pushes him none-too-gently against the beam behind his back. He doesn’t wince or hiss, just glares right back at her. “Don’t _ever_ call me a bat.”

If Jason is shocked by that comment he doesn’t show it, just meets her icy stare with one of his own.

It's that moment her portable computer decides to announce that someone had tripped her sensors. Thankfully, when she pulls away from Jason and looks down at her device, her cameras show Robin entering their secret—for now, the Bats always eventually find them—hideout. She still doesn’t approve of Tim’s insistence on using that name for his code name. The bats have hurt him too, and she doesn’t believe that what “Robin” used to stand for is different than what the Bats stand for now. He wants to remember what Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson used to stand for.

Before their version of Jason died and Batman went off the deep end. Before Dick went missing for months and was tortured and brainwashed to become the perfect assassin in time for Batman to “rescue” him and use him as _his_ perfect assassin. Before James Gordon tried to stop him and ended up with a weapon lodged in his throat. Before Talon sentenced the Drakes to die.

Before Bruce was so distraught and depressed over the death of his second son that he killed the Joker that fated night all those years ago.

The sound of Tim entering the underground garage brings her out of her musings. The grown-up Jason turns his head and narrows his eyes at her younger partner and her lips thin in a feeling she can’t place before she looks away from him to greet Tim.

“You run into any trouble?” She asked and Tim smiled at her.

“Not this time. Got in and out before I saw Talon heading to the scene.”

“Talon?” Hood questions, but he goes mostly ignored. The only acknowledgment he gets is a nervous glance his way from Tim, but Tim continues on anyway like nothing happened.

“There’s nothing there besides evidence of multi-dimensional travel,” Tim explains as he hands Barbara a little scanner she handed him before he went to investigate. “Which we already knew.”

“Yeah but the bats have more resources than we do,” Barbara retorts, looking over the data herself. She’ll have to plug it into an actual monitor to see if she can find what universe this Jason came from later. “I bet, by now, they already know our visitor is Jason Todd and that we have him. Are you sure Talon didn’t see you?”

“Yeah,” Tim nods, his eyes straying from Barbara back to where their guest is shamelessly listening in. “So you are... Jason?”

Barbara almost wanted to snap to not talk to him because they’re not sure how morally correct this guy is, but the addressed man just smirked. “So, you’re still Robin?”

“Still-?” Tim squawks and Barbara rolls her eyes.

“We don’t have time for this,” she interrupts, bending down to regain her eye to eye contact with her prisoner, “for all we know Batman could be sending Talon after us as we speak. Whether or not I leave you for them to find is entirely up to you answering every single one of my questions honestly and without any sass.”

“Fine,” Jason says, smirking slightly and not looking intimidated at all. It sets her on edge and she sorta wants to slap him even though the memory of a little brat with a wide grin with a gap between his front teeth doesn’t seem to want to stop bugging the edge of her subconscious. Jason Todd is a holy memory, a loving and loud kid that everyone liked one way or another. She doesn’t think she can work herself up to punch his older and more asShole-lry counterpart quite yet. “But, I wanna know things in exchange too. Like who the frick-frack is Talon? Like, I’ve heard of _Talons_ and the Parliament of Owls and all that, but we don’t have anyone working for Batman that goes by that.”

She frowns, even more memories of the past popping up in her mind’s-eye. She wonders how much different a world with a living Jason Todd could be. How much has changed. “I’m sure you know Dick Grayson. And it was the Court of Owls; I’ve never heard of Parliament.”

If the information shocks Jason, he doesn’t show it, but she swears she sees something green and angry flash in his much too teal eyes. She remembers him having a deep, calming blue.

-o-o-o-o-

Apparently, in his world, he _did_ die. The information angers her, sets something boiling in her gut. Jason Todd is doomed to die in every world, isn’t he? After talking about the differences of their world, she finds that the real difference, the cataclysm if you will, is that in his world, he came back to life from some sort of ripple in the universe and Batman never killed the Joker.

When she mentions he did in her world, she finally got a reaction out of him, and he yells at her that that’s what should have happened.

It’s a shame, she thinks, that the thing he wanted most was what turned her world evil.

Because after Batman killed Joker, he didn’t stop killing. He’s always said when she first joined that there’s a line you shouldn’t cross because it’s impossible to step back. She didn’t know at the time that he meant himself entirely. Soon, drug lords and kingpins and gangsters were ending up in body bags in the streets. She and Nightwing tried to team up and stop him, but then Dick was taken by the Court. Her father died trying to stop Batman. The Drake’s died because the Court ordered their newest and most valuable Talon to kill them. Barbara took in Tim and reluctantly let him join her war. Batman killed everyone in the Court and took back his eldest son, but never cured him. They’ve both been after the two of them ever since.

“What about Alfred?”

Barbara bites her lip and finally unlocks the cuffs around the other Jason’s wrists. “He died... years ago... they say out of a broken heart.”

“Oh,” he says, voice quiet. He then clears his throat. “And the Justice League?” He moves his hands in front of him and stretches out his shoulders and rubs his now freed wrists.

“Batman had contingency plans for all of them,” Tim answered for Barbara, “what do you think he has now since the no-kill rule is out of the way?”

“They leave Gotham alone,” Barbara finishes. “They avoid questions about it. Police say it’s because Batman doesn’t kill anyone not guilty. The last person he killed who was innocent was... but that was years ago. Talon hasn’t killed anyone innocent since Bruce took him back. The people dying are murderers and rapists and if it stays that way, no one besides us is going to fight them. Not when B can make a very, very good villain.“

“What about Damian,” the other Jason asks again, his voice a tad more... reverent... as if he’s finally grasping the situation of the world he’s found himself in.

Tim raises an eyebrow. “Who?”

“Damian,” Jason repeats, “the demon brat. Tater-tot. Damian _Al Ghul_.”

“Al Ghul,” Barbara asks, her interest spiking.

“Thalia’s son. What about him?”

She shares a look with Tim and swallows. “The situation... was messy. The Al Ghul’s did something to piss Batman off three... four years ago? It was a little while after the Joker died, but before Dick was taken. Ra’s expressed disappointment or something, showed him something that he had, and Batman disappeared off the face of the earth for a few weeks just to come back when news began that the League of Assassins was wiped off the face of the earth. Ra’s was found in pieces. But Thalia... Thalia’s body wasn’t found. I think she got away.”

“Then that means Damian got away,” Jason breathes, shoulder’s relaxing slightly.

“I didn’t know Thalia... had a son,” Tim says and Jason responds with a bitter chuckle.

“Neither did we until she dropped off a ten year old kid on Bruce's lap three years ago. You went off and became Red Robin and Damian took your place. Now,” Jason stands up and brushes off his pants and places his red domino mask over his eyes that Barbara had returned to him. She has his metal hood too, but there’s tech in there that she’s never seen before and she’d rather study it than give it back quite yet. “I take it neither of you have heard of Cassandra Cain, Stephanie Brown, or Duke Thomas, yeah?”

“Stephanie is the daughter of the uh Cluemaster, right?” Tim asks and Barbara raises an eyebrow his way and he blushes. “I saw her in his records...”

“But you don’t personally know any of them?”

Tim shakes his head.

Barbara is about to ask who these people are when her scanner all of a sudden goes off, announcing her sensors have been tripped. She doesn’t have to look at the camera to instantly know who it is.

“Talon,” she hisses. Jason’s eyes widen slightly and Tim scrambles to grab their few bags of meager belongings as Barbara slips on her own mask and grabs Jason by the bicep. “Quickly. We’re going.”

She drags him behind her as she rushes towards her’s and Tim’s emergency exit. She’s sad to see this safe-house go. It served them well while it lasted. But there’s nothing she can do, it’s been compromised.

In the corner of the abandoned garage is a very well hidden man-hole cover. She rushes forward to help Tim lift it and in the next few moments she’s heaving herself into the smoggy evening air of Gotham and grabbing Jason’s hand to help him out. Once she makes sure that Tim is out as well, she closes the cover and instantly begins to jog quickly down the alleyway they’ve found themselves in. Hopefully Talon will be cautious and study the entire garage before leaving it to find them.

“So, you’re taking me along? Not leaving me for them?” Jason’s voice sounds besides her, sounding smug.

She glares at him. “I was lying. You don’t want them to find you.”

“Why, because they’ll kill me?”

She shakes her head and quickens her pace, keeping Tim in the corners of her sight. “No. Because they won't let you go.”

**Author's Note:**

> Ras had that dimensions Jason btw. He expressed disappointment in Bruce for sinking to the level of a common criminal and killed that Jason on screen. 
> 
> Please leave a comment and tell me what you think!


End file.
